Controversial rapper Kanye West’s Italian performance has been postponed due to a train strike and bad weather, MailOnline can exclusively reveal.
West was due to perform at the open-air venue in Reggio Emilia on Friday and organizers had been in discussions with local authorities about the performance all week.
Initially it was to take place on October 20, but with 100,000 fans expected and a railway strike planned for the Italian network, it was decided to postpone the event.
Officials also took into account that heavy rain is forecast in the area on Friday evening and that, with no shelter, the open-air venue is at risk of becoming a mud bath.
A spokesperson for the Reggio Emilia prefecture said: ‘Given that a railway strike was planned the same day and that heavy rain is expected, it was considered prudent to postpone the event.
EXCLUSIVE: Kanye West’s controversial Italian performance – set to take place on Friday – has been postponed following protests from war veterans who criticized him for praising Hitler
Will go ahead: ‘The organizers have been given an alternative date of October 27 and we are waiting for an answer as to whether this is acceptable to them’
‘Our aim is to ensure the safety of everyone, and if there is a transport problem the concert cannot go ahead safely and being in the open air the forecast heavy rain would have also caused problems.
‘The organizers have been given an alternative date of October 27 and we are awaiting an answer as to whether this is acceptable to them.’
Security is expected to be tight as MailOnline highlighted how local veterans groups were angry that the gig was even promoted because of West’s praise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
In a shocking interview last year, West said: “Every person has something of value that he or she brought to the table, especially Hitler.
‘I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis. There are a lot of things I like about Hitler, a lot of things: I love Hitler, I’m a Nazi.”
Albertina Soliani, vice-president of the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), stormed: ‘It is time to say enough to these people who think they can say whatever they want.
“Someone can be a fantastic singer, but then they are also judged by what they say, and West has made some inhumane statements and with what is happening in the world today, we cannot accept this concert.
‘Every day we are focused on promoting certain values, namely freedom and democracy, and then we just have to start from the beginning again.
In an interview last year, West said: “Every person has something of value that he or she brings to the table, especially Hitler (Kanye imagined him arriving at Milan Fashion Week in September)
His love: West – who has now changed his name to Ye – has been in Italy for an extended holiday since August with his wife, Australian Bianca Censori
‘In my opinion he should stay at home. Reggio Emilia has always valued people who have fought for firm principles and we stand with the oppressed and not with those who preach hatred.’
Ermete Fiaccadori, ANPI regional president for Reggio Emilia, denounced the West, saying: “First of all, let me say that I hope this concert does not happen. This artist has a large following among young people, but his message is disturbing.
‘I am speechless that he cannot understand what he is saying, which conveys a gross misunderstanding of what Adolf Hitler was throughout history.
“I’m all for artistic freedom, but what Kanye West says and does leaves me shocked.
‘As an organization we strongly condemn this concert and are deeply concerned about the message it conveys.
‘And before anyone says it: this is not censorship because we are all for freedom, but we are talking about a concert that is completely out of order.
‘Reggio has a long history of fighting against the ideas of Adolf Hitler, and many lost their lives as a result.’
West, 46, has been in Italy since August with Australian Italian woman Bianca Censori, 28, and is said to be in a recording studio in Milan working on a new album.
In March 1944, in Cervarolo, just 40 miles from Reggio Emilia, the Nazis massacred 24 people, including the village priest, in retaliation for partisan activities.
In a sharp editorial on its website, ReggioOnline launched the idea of the performance by saying: ‘Do we really want this?’ and highlighted how the star has been involved in controversies since his stay in Italy.
It added: ‘West is able to sell thousands of tickets in just a few minutes, transfer a huge amount of money, create an event that will reach millions of people in no time via streaming.
‘Is it right that Kayne West sings in Reggio Emilia in the name of art and its ability to attract a large audience?
‘This is a city that takes its students on memory trips to the death camps, so that those atrocities never repeat themselves.
‘This is a city in which the values of the person, of human dignity and of respect for others are not questioned and are also commemorated.
“This is the city where children are not sent to ovens to burn, but are elevated through an education system that copies the world of ours.
‘Many justifications can be put forward in the name of money: from the phrase “if he didn’t sing in Reggio, he would sing elsewhere” to the more subtle phrase: “all artists sing questionable phrases.”
Not happy: Local veterans groups representing former partisans who fought the Nazis and Hitler, as well as Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, ruined the concert
Major project: Trucks have been coming and going from the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia near Bologna for several days and on Thursday a private jet landed on a nearby runway and a car with blacked-out windows was seen heading towards the venue
‘When West performs in Reggio Emilia, he certainly falls within the logic of a market that does not look at what is sung, but at what it produces.
‘However, do not forget that words, when they are dangerous and violent, not only make money, but also damage the brains of many people. But this is of course not or hardly interesting.’
Last year, West released an album called Donda, named after his mother, and was said to be in Italy working on the follow-up.
Music forums suggested that if the concert was not given the green light, it would become a ‘listening event’, where instead of performing in front of a live audience it would be streamed online.
Donda – West’s tenth album – is named after his mother Donda C West, who died in 2007 at the age of just 58.
West last performed live in Italy in August, when he performed in front of 60,000 fans at a Travs Scott gig in Rome – and it was his first appearance since making a stream of anti-Semitic comments.
Dressed entirely in black and barefoot, West sang Donda’s Praise God and his 2007 anthem Can’t Tell Me Nothing.
That concert made headlines after 60 people required hospital treatment when pepper spray was released, while locals feared an earthquake as jumping fans caused intense tremors of a magnitude of 1.3.